Liberal/green comment, local history, cycling, railways & things you may not have heard about

Above is a link to a most wonderful tune by jazz guitarist Norman Brown.

Hey things are more than a bit grim at present. The NHS is falling apart at the seams, the police are so under funded they struggle to protect us from crime, our schools are at breaking point with budget cuts, Northern would rather run buses than trains, Government is all at sea and their Official Opposition doesn’t seem to know how to oppose them. Trump keeps going bonkers, global warming is going to create a living hell for future generations and Brexit is going to see job losses, an economic downturn (yes we can keep going down!), less environmental protections…………. But you get my drift, as a progressive times have never been so tough – Thatcherism and Reaganomics were grim but we are are potentially on the road to far far worse.

So what do you do in the face of all this misery? You realise that there will be better days ahead as the electorate are sure to slam the brakes on whose they put in power and U-turn the political juggernaut away from the march towards fascism back to a progressive way forward. Well we’ve got to hope so because staying on the course the UK is presently on means a very poor outcome for us all but for the poor it does not bear thinking about!

But until May is put out of her misery and until Corbyn learns to oppose try listening to this tune by Norman Brown entitled Better Days Ahead, it will lift your weary soul…..

Throughout my presently 32 years in public life I have had numerous encounters with police officers. The vast majority of those encounters have been really positive and I grew to respect many police women and men as a consequence.

But I have also encountered police officers who have struck me as being simply the wrong type of person to put on that uniform. I refer to personality traits such as controlling, self-important or remote from the communities they are meant to be serving.

Yes police officers have to be tough and unwavering as they try to keep us safe but they all also require good diplomatic and interpersonal skills despite the challenges of their job.

I don’t know about you but I sighed when I read the Liverpool Echo article above. It’s all well and good apologising but the bottom line is the remark should never have been made in the first place by a police officer. OK the officer has been given ‘management advice’ but surely the officer’s managers must be thinking that this seeming lack of judgement is far more serious than an apology can put right.

It’s probably a major indication of how the modern Conservative Party has lost its way as it turned the screw on Police funding in recent times. Long gone is the ‘party of law and order’ tag which it once so prized.

But as crime has continued to rise and the police have become more and more stretched it was only a matter of time before the Government’s arm was going to be twisted to find more money for policing. Seeing the Police being cut back so much must have been hurting the Tory rank and file and I guess they have said enough is enough – the funding tap needs to be turned on again.

But in reality what the Government is doing is telling Police an Crime Commissioners to put up your Council tax to pay for the extra funding. It looks like an average of £12 per year per household to me but frankly I am more than happy to cough up.

Me outside the old Maghull Police Station – It’s now within Maghull Town Hall.

I have fought for policing funding throughout my time in politics and recall a big push to get policing numbers back up during the early years of the Blair Government when the outgoing Tories had pushed numbers down and Labour were slow to react when taking power.

I found this graphic recently*. It shows how policing numbers have gone up and down from 1977 to 2016 – It’s from the Home Office so should be reliable information:-

The interesting dates to look at are where General Elections and economic recessions fall and what follows them in terms of ups and downs in policing numbers.

Despite all the ups and downs there were clearly more full time equivalent policeman and women in 2016 (@121,000) than there were in 1977 (@104,000) when the graph starts. The peak seems to have been @141,000 in 2010.

Of course the other interesting piece of news is that a Tory Government is again increasing taxes. They can’t bring themselves to increase national taxation so like with extra funding for social care last year (and indeed this year) it is being put on local taxation/Council tax.

*Note:- The graph above is about overall national policing figures, there will be differences between individual police force numbers that this graph does not accommodate.

Maybe its because I come from Nottinghamshire mining stock, maybe its because I am a life-long trade unionist or maybe its because as a Liberal I smell injustice. It’s probably all 3 so is it not time this scar on the industrial relations landscape of England was independently looked at in some detail?

Published and promoted by Nick Harvey on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, 8-10 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AE. Printed [hosted] by Via Studios, One Lincoln Place, 7 Hulme Street, Manchester M1 5GL.

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